european bonanza part deux

after hanging out in hot as hell rome for 4 grueling days, we were more than happy to leave. we hopped a train north and stopped at pisa on our way to florence. i must say i was quite astonished by the dilapidated state pisa was in. the train station is located across town so we had to make a 20 minute trek to the landmark the city was renowned for, the leaning tower of pisa. how appropriately named wouldn't you say? going there, we took the sidestreets in an attempt to experience the local flavor and coming back to the train station, we took the main path that tourists typically take. both paths were caked with bird doodoo and seemingly abandoned buildings. in fact, this was the closest i felt to being in a real ghost town if i were to ignore the tourists. even walking among the decadent shops that line the main tourist passagement, i couldn't help but feel that the town's soul all but floated away long ago. the sole reason for living in pisa is to support the tourism there, not an uncommon trait of italian cities as i shall see later.

here's di huggin her pisa


















has anyone ever scaled pisa in one giant step before?
























towards florence we went after a lazy pisa afternoon. upon arriving, di and i walked around a huge market square, around the ponte vecchio and down to the duomo. the buildings were exquisite, the scenery beautiful, and the ambience lively and full of culture. florence is widely regarded as the birthplace of the renaiissance which is evidenced by the sheer number of artists who lived here including Leondardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello, three out of four of the teengage mutant ninja turtles. florence had the best gelato and the best italian food i've tasted while trekking through italy. the david by michelangelo was the most spectacular work of art i've ever seen. period. it was far more grand than i expected, mainly due to its sheer ginormousity, but also in part to the jaw dropping detail in the musculature, proportions, and vein/artery system. i couldn't help but feel a sense of chillaxness that accompanied the great capital of the arts.

the duomo. attempt to depic scale.






medusa murdered bcuz of a bad hair day


the byootiful ponte vecchio. notice the multiple bridges along the water


no ponte vecchio would be complete without diane to grace it


click to zoom on this picture to see the artistic detail in this dome. nuts sack crazy!


click to zoom on the picture to see the perfect artistic imitation. i'm not gay.


what is there not to like about florence?



we left florence a couple of days later to arrive in venice by train. it was another beautiful city minus the ambience that permeated florence. it was real cool to see a whole city on water, with no cars, no pollution, no noise, but also, no good eateries, no interesting architecture, and a square where flying rats (ie pigeons) are adored and fed regularly. after marveling at the concept, my feelings about the place quickly turned into a dull boredom. thought i must say, it was very relaxing to sit by the water and fall asleep. the interesting thing about the city is that like pisa, it's entirely supported by tourism. most of the original populace left the town long ago so all the buildings i've seen were abandoned. kinda eerie standing in an alley totally surrounded by buildings with boarded up windows. there is so much potential and it's all deteriorating.

st. mark's square replete with pigeons


very nice. until you start to think that most of those buildings are abandoned...


your average venetian welcome mat


flavor in the ear while you eat...


do you feel the romance in the air?

funny the way things work

so over dinner, i was bitchin about the shock of being back in ny. i really do miss europe and the sense of freedom. it may seem ironic that i freer than ever in a totally foreign land, outside of my comfort zone, and unable to speak the native language. after the eurotrip 07 it really dawned upon me that i had no idea where i was going with my life. is an mba the answer for me? sure, i scored well enough on the gmat to go to a top 15 but i've come to realize that going to a good school won't crystallize my cloudy vision.

i was also hating on the fact that i live sooo far from the action in ny. it took me literally one hour to cover the 50-block distance to my home on 108th street because the damn 1 subway line was down, the B and C trains refused to come after waiting for 20 minutes, and no empty cab was to be seen for 15 minutes. i was pretty damn pissed that it was this difficult to get home.

but funny how things seem to happen for a reason. the cab driver was quite entertaining as he began to spout off about america's arrogant stance regarding third world countries. you see, the driver was bangledeshi and he was especially pissed off about an incident in 1998. that year, bangladesh found oil but did not have the technology to extract it. exxon came in and said they'll pump the oil and give 25% of the profit to bangladesh. their government obviously wanted and even 50%. so the driver claimed the american government forced a coup d'etat within the bangladeshi government in order to establish the 75%/25% distribution exxon originally asked for. he went on to say that many countries are secretly rooting for china to come up in strength and bring the world's balance of superpowers back in check after the fall of the kremlin gave the US ultimate say in international politics. he almost demanded me to go to any 3rd world country and ask its citizens why they hate america. i bet he would have driven me to one if he could.

mind you, the driver was quite ferverent in getting all this off his chest to a total stranger. i can see rivers of sweat streaming down his temple and perspiration beads form on his nose and cheeks as he drove me towards 108th street. i had to roll the window down because it was getting hot as hell. if i lived on 150th street, he might have just spontaneously combusted in his seat. that totally made my day and reminded me why i actually do like living in ny. the randomness.